


Yuki

by Hydra (bendersalt)



Category: Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 10:50:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18009548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bendersalt/pseuds/Hydra
Summary: Yuki is a story told from the perspective of Haku. This story does not follow canon but does use a lot of its set pieces. It also takes place in an AU.





	Yuki

 

I breathed out. The air, icy cool, seemed to battle against the bright sunlight which glinted off what was left of the clean snow nearby. The deep winter frost didn’t even register to my bare feet but as I took another breath my attention settled on the blood that was dripping down my arms.

I looked down at my hands. They were covered in blood and I was naked. I shifted my foot, feeling the bloody mud under my feet. I had made myself alone and I suddenly felt so old. This life had barely started and this place was now a tomb; a tomb I had dug and filled with bodies. The heated rage from before passed through me but I pushed it away and instead took another breath.

I looked again at my hands. One was empty and the other held the head of the man who had impregnated my mother. He didn’t deserve a title; what kind of a person would kill their own daughter and wife? Another of my senses drew my attention as icy blades hovered around me, restless and waiting to be commanded. My chakra burned like a tiny flame in each of the blades, yearning to continue the work from before.

I had been too efficient though; there was no one else I wanted to kill. This was now a town of ghosts. It turns out I wasn’t any better than the man whose head I carried. I dropped the head and turned around, taking in the scene around me. It was important to remember what I could do if I lost control, the kinds of sins I was capable of committing.

The rage in me stilled completely at the scene and I fell to my knees exhausted and empty. My chakra though continued to stir. I couldn’t seem to let it go.

The presence of another person filtered in, the taste of their chakra, pointy and keen but also like still water over hidden depths. I was completely unprepared to fight someone like this. Their presence made the faint lights of my own chakra seem like a shadow trying to face the sun.

The man stepped into the small town's square with his eyes already latched on to me, his body ready to move at a moment's notice. I must have looked like a nightmare given form; covered and surrounded by the evidence of my  _ efforts _ . I was drenched with it. The Shinobi - and he couldn’t have been anything but a Shinobi - didn't even blink.

He wore no jacket and a touch of steam rose from his bare arms. The cold didn’t seem to touch him at all, just like me. A sword, easily twice his size rested on his back. It gleamed in the light of the sun, a brutal contrast to the red snow and dirt around us. Markings along its blade in twirling beautiful shapes caught my eye and I stared at him wondering what his next move would be.

I started when he broke the silence. "What'd they do?"

His voice sounded amused and completely at ease. I ran my mind over the question for a moment, feeling at odds with answering it, knowing that if I did it would make it all the more real.

Guilt defeated the childish instinct of avoidance and I whispered,  "They killed my mother."

A belly laugh erupted from him filling the small square. His grin grew wide and filed, pointed teeth caught my eye. He walked up to me slowly, seeming to take in the scene, then patted my head, completely unconcerned with the  _ filth _ covering me. His chakra stirred and my muscles went rigid. He merely raised his eyes at me while he grabbed some clean snow a few feet away. I watched with curiosity as he multiplied it with chakra. He brought the snow to my head and began to clean me.

I let out a breath at his touch and the tension in me stilled as he moved his hands, the motions a mixture of rough and gentle. The ice weapons surrounding me began to drop from the air as my chakra sluggishly rolled out of them. The plopping sound they made as they fell into the blood and snow seemed to chisel away at the last vestiges of my rage. The last one fell and my chakra drifted back toward me lazily. The cleaning was done, and I shivered for a moment, not because of the cold - that didn't bother me at all - but because I actually felt clean. A feeling I certainly didn't deserve.

He seemed to read my mind and showed his teeth again, in a wide gruesome smile.

"Follow me."

It was not a command, but an invitation. I looked at the corpses of everyone I had ever known surrounding me. There was nothing left for me here, so I followed.

—

Naked and bruised I spent a day following him, barely managing to keep up. After I had struggled for a while he eventually spoke, “You need to use your chakra.”

That was the sum of his instruction but it was all I needed. He was not moving fast, but I was only six years old and anything beyond a leisurely stroll was hard to keep up with when you barely stood three feet tall. He settled down to rest when the sun was three quarters through the sky. He stopped suddenly, dropping a kunai in front of me; catching my eye he stared at me quietly.

“There is an elk near.”

I nodded at him, grabbing the kunai. I followed him into the woods and he moved silently over the mud and snow, his hands gesturing at areas that would make too much noise. The elk came into sight and he drew his kunai and pointed it at the elk’s throat. I yelped in shock as he grabbed me with his free hand and threw me into the small clearing. The elk started at my sudden appearance and I tensed in anticipation.

The elk tried to bolt, but the man moved with incredible speed, blocking its escape each time it tried to find a way out. Eventually, the animal’s fear seemed to morph into desperation and it turned on me and charged. Chakra and fear shot through my limbs and I jumped to the side while slashing the kunai at its throat.

It was too easy. The slash connected and the animal fell over in a tumble. I blinked in shock for a moment, staring at my hands. I knew what I was capable of; it had only been mere hours since my rampage. Still, the fact that a six year old could kill a fully mature elk, with nothing but a blade no larger than their own forearm stilled my thoughts.

I turned and watched as strange shapes flashed through the man's hand. The snow around him melted, and when the snow was gone the leftover mud began to dry, forming a circle of dirt. He gestured at some small stones and I nodded, and made a small fire pit in the center of the circle. When I finished I noticed two bedrolls had been set out and he was watching me.

It took me a moment to think of what to say, but the answer came to me, and I looked at him seriously while I bowed slightly.

“Sensei.”

He tilted his head a bit and chuckled. “I guess so.”

He pulled a kunai from his belt and spoke, “Watch. Do this next time.”

He moved his arm once slowly and deliberately, then once again with speed, throwing the kunai at a nearby tree. It buried itself up to its hilt. I gulped in shock at the incredible display of strength.

“I am Momochi Zabuza, though I suppose you will call me Sensei.” He tilted his head up to the sky, considering something silently.

I responded in kind. “Yuki Haku, Sensei.”

He hummed and scratched his neck with his left hand. “You have what Shinobi call a Bloodline Limit. The controlling of ice is a high level elemental technique restricted to the very skilled, or with ease to someone of your bloodline. You will be useful to me.”

He said it in a way that was both a question and a statement and I nodded. “Yes.”

“Good. Now let me show you how to make something useful out of this animal.”

He stood and spoke each word corresponding to a new shape he made with his hands. “Boar, Fox, Monkey, Crane.”

His movements were slow and exaggerated, a lesson in the action. When he finished the skin of the animal seemed to separate from the muscle below, and he drew another kunai, cleanly cutting out a large section of the skin.

“The hand movements are called hand seals. This technique will not work on living things. Their chakra will resist it. Visualize the chakra separating alongside the flesh and it will.”

He lifted the skin off and threw it over a rock, quickly moving through another set of hand seals that I couldn’t keep up with. He pulled out a scroll as I watched the skin in front of me age and dry before my eyes. Weeks of effort and strain for a civilian, reduced to a tiny expenditure of energy. I marveled at it.

The scroll flashed and I jumped in surprise as he pulled a needle and thread out of nowhere. Something about the image of this giant man about to begin sewing caused me to snort and he grinned his sharp teeth back at me. It took him barely fifteen minutes and I had clothing and shoes. I wasted no time putting them on, wanting to feel less exposed even if I didn’t need the warmth.

He sent me off to gather kindling after that and when I returned he was busy drawing something on the trees near us. He didn’t comment on what he was doing but turned to me and stood in front of the kindling I had set into the fire pit.

“Fox, Boar, Crane. Visualize a spark erupting into flame.”

I did as commanded, moving my hands through the symbols slowly visualizing the spark. Nothing happened.

He snorted at me. “Push chakra into your hands.”

“Oh.”

I repeated the action, moving chakra into my hands. It seemed to twist with the shapes I made and settled into the air in front of me, ready and waiting. When I finished, the chakra rushed from where it was waiting into the fire pit and the kindling erupted into flame. I fell back in shock.

He laughed at me but quickly set about making sure the fire would last.

“Thank you.”

He looked at me and grinned. "We'll see if you keep saying that.”

—

We spent a week running ever faster as I learned how to keep up. There was no mercy in the ways he pushed me. Every time I learned how to handle one difficulty, he would add another. We would run, then we would throw kunai, then we would run again, then he would teach me something new. When I woke the first morning I observed him doing katas. On the second day I began to mimic him. He didn’t acknowledge me at first, but eventually he began to pause and move my arms or legs into whatever position he considered correct.

Every moment seemed planned, and if he was impressed with me at all he did an excellent job of never showing it. Praise was never given but it was clear when he was pleased.

On the eighth day we paused when the sun was at its apex. “We are about to pass from Steam Country to Fire Country. You lived near the coast north east of us.”

He seemed to consider something before he continued to speak.

“The sword I carry is called the Sever Sword. As usual for Shinobi its name has nothing to do with the sword’s capabilities. Mist commissioned it from Whirlpool and the Uzumaki tribe, more than four generations ago. There are two reason I tell you this. One is obviously that many Shinobi desire to possess this treasure. The second is that somewhere in northern Fire Country, lies the tomb of Senju Satomi. The original hilt wrappings are supposedly hidden there. I desire them. They are said to magnify the Fuinjutsu properties of the sword.”

He hefted the sword from its position on his back and spoke, “First Release. Ink.”

Chakra burned from the sword and ink seemed to erupt from its blade. I watched him as he performed a kata. Ink flowed about the air left in the wake of the blade as he moved it about with grace. The size of the sword contrasted with the effortlessness of his movements and my breath caught as a seal took shape from the ink hovering in the air, vibrating with power.

“Fuin.”

The word was quiet but a beam as bright as the sun flashed from the seal, splitting a tree only a few meters from us. I stared for a moment, watching as the tree crashed to the ground. The ink dissipated from the air around us as the seal on the sword dimmed. I shivered for a moment at the casual display of power and turned to him as he settled the blade back into place on his back.

“Discovering the location of the tomb will take time. I will be taking jobs where I can but I do not belong to a Hidden Village so those jobs will be… less than ideal. I have no reputation in Fire Country which is both good and bad.”

His statement sounded like a question for some reason and I caught up to the implication after a moment of consideration.

“What do you need from me Sensei?”

“I need you to run messages between towns. No one pays attention to a boy your age.”

“Girl.”

He gave me look I couldn’t quite decipher before speaking, “Evidence suggests boy. I’ve seen you naked.”

Heat rushed through me at his words and I spat back at him, “Girl.”

He stared at me for a long moment. “Girl then.”

I couldn’t stop the smile in response and he rolled his eyes.

“Regardless, this is what I’ll need you to do.”

He pulled a scroll out with an old leather map of Fire Country hidden in it.

“Shinobi prefer to use dead drops to pass information. It reduces the likelihood of discovery from sensors such as yourself.”

I blinked at that tidbit of information. I hadn’t known that sense was special. He continued on.

“It's simple for a trained Shinobi to drop a message without slowing, as opposed to an exchange by hand which involves multiple levels of risk. The marks on this map are old locations for Mist. My attempt at defeating the Mist Shadow failed, and the borders were closed. It is likely that the network is still active but I would prefer if my presence wasn’t known. I am a  _ traitor  _ and they would be obliged to refuse business with me. You on the other hand are merely a very young Genin.”

The word traitor came with a wave of emotion that made me all the more aware of how little of it he usually showed.

I tilted my head to the side latching onto something more concrete. “A genin?”

“A genin is the lowest classification of active Shinobi. You would pass any of the villages’ qualifications with ease.”

That was a compliment. It wasn’t said as one, but I heard it all the same. A warmth spread through me at his words. He rummaged through his scrolls and pulled a small amount of ryo from one, handing it to me.

“This location here, drop half of that ryo and wait for three days within a four hour distance of the location, four of my traveling hours, not yours. There should be a map when you return. If there is anyone at the location when you arrive, that agent is compromised or stupid. Do not approach, just return to me.”

“Yes Sensei.”

He pointed at the map, an hour north of a small village near Jofuku Mountain.

“We will meet there.”

“Yes Sensei.”

I stood to leave before he laughed. “So eager. No, first I need to teach you something. It may take quite a while.”

—

Two weeks passed in the flash of an eye, during which he taught me to attach myself to objects with nothing but chakra. On its own, that wasn't that difficult for me. Sensei continued to add complications though, which is how I found myself hanging upside down from the roof of a cave as Sensei threw shuriken at me. The difficulty of dodging on a roof was that gravity wanted to pull you down, so if you tried to dive without incredible speed you’d simply fall. I had been instructed not to fall and I had no desire to find out exactly what failing Sensei would look like. Success was difficult enough on its own.

More shuriken were flicked casually at me and I moved my feet, planting them first and then pulling myself out of the way. That was the hardest part for me with this exercise, you had to plant your feet before you even tried to dodge. It was a complete inversion of what you would do on the ground and being upside down made it that much more difficult. The pooling of blood in the head was irritating and distracting.

I moved out of the way of another volley before I gave him the hand sign to ask a question. He paused and waited silently.

"Sensei, is it possible to use chakra to make being upside down less awkward?"

His body language told me he'd been waiting for me to ask. "Yes. Eyes, ears, circulation."

I wanted to scoff at how terse he always was but he expected me to figure it out, so I did. I channeled chakra into my eyes and ears, willing more than visualizing a sense of steadiness. It was hardly precise but I felt a rush as my feet seemed to settle and the constant urge to try and twist my head to get the world pointing in the right direction fell away. We began again and I felt a surge of triumph as I moved with considerably more grace and confidence than before.

Eventually he hit me and I fell, but I landed upright. I grabbed bandages, wrapping the small cuts before leaping back to the roof to continue. He never acknowledged any of my movements until he started throwing shuriken again.

He eventually called a halt to the exercise after I fell a fourth time and gestured for me to sit.

“Shinobi in Fire Country use the trees, as opposed to say Wind Country where battles mostly stay within two dimensions. A good Shinobi always looks up, and checks every corner. The kunai you don’t see is much more dangerous than the one you do. You are a chakra sensor though, while a Shinobi may be able to fool you into thinking they are a civilian with chakra masking techniques, removing their presence entirely from your sense would classify them at a high A rank. It wouldn’t matter if you knew they were there or not, you aren’t fast enough to stop them. For now, it is better to not look at all; a bluff. Any genin or chunin would assume you incompetent, you can use that to your advantage.”

I hummed at his apparent thought process and asked the obvious question, “Should I always be sensing then? It drains my chakra rather quickly.”

He seemed surprised at my statement and a strange look passed over his face before he flashed through hand seals and placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Huh. Girl indeed.”

He didn’t elaborate but his hands moved to my stomach and I felt a churning sensation in my body before he hummed.

“Strange. Your chakra coils are feminine but your tenketsu are masculine. This probably cripples your chakra efficiency.”

He was silent for a moment, a very small glimmer of frustration on his face. “How much is the activation cost of your sense?”

“Barely more than keeping it on.”

“Turn it off and on repeatedly then. Practice this on your journey.”

“Yes Sensei.”

“Go. Meet me in six days.”

—

The trees of Fire Country had a different smell than the forests near my village of birth. It had a strange mix of pine and oak, an impossible combination since there was only one kind of tree. Even I knew of the first Fire Shadow though and impossible trees were not outside his power. It amazed me, largely due to the fact that Fire Country was absolutely gigantic, yet the trees he had planted around the Hidden Leaf had spread incredibly far in only five generations.

I passed the dead drop at my highest possible speed, dropping the cash against an innocuous stone. I turned to the west, moving in the general direction of a minor Leaf outpost. The flickering of my chakra sense turning on and off did a great deal to stave off the boredom of running through endless miles of nondescript forest.

I paused for a moment on a branch, checking the map Sensei had given me. My breath stilled when I noticed it. The forest was silent. I flared my chakra sense and a presence flickered around the edges. It seemed to ripple and my eyes went wide when it surged toward me.

I instantly began moving again and ascended in the trees, keeping my sense active and focused on the pursuer. I tallied my arsenal - three kunai, four shuriken. The presence increased its speed, and I knew that it would catch up to me.

I hooked my chakra on the edge of a branch and attempted to ripple it quickly to alter my direction. The strain was painful on my right ankle but I accepted it as I seemed to have created a bit of distance between me and whoever was chasing me. Three minutes passed before my pursuer started to gain ground again, and I felt a trickle of fear at how outmatched I probably was. I couldn't continue to swing around trees like I had without risking serious injury.

The chakra grew closer. It felt toxic and ravenous. What kind of person would create that kind of feeling?

The presence sped up again. I guessed I had maybe thirty seconds before it caught me. Panic trickled in and I felt my breathing grow shorter. Grabbing my kunai I looked around, observing the area. An arrangement of three larger trees with great reaching branches positioned in a triangle stood out to me and I came to a stop on a large branch.

Twenty seconds. I slashed with my kunai against a smaller branch hanging in front of me and grabbed it as it fell. Fifteen seconds. Fox, Boar, Crane. The branch erupted into flame and I pushed my chakra into it. Ten seconds. It resisted me but I threw my reserves at it and passed the kunai over the flame until it glowed red. Exhaustion rushed through me and I briefly considered the decision unwise but it was too late to take it back now.

Three seconds. The presence bore down on me and I gasped in shock as what I had imagined was a Chunin erupted into a great wave of oppressive chakra. My hand slipped and the hot blade touched my skin, shocking me out of my fear. I took a position as I continued to feed chakra into the heat of the blade.

One second. I felt more than saw my opponent as they slammed me into the tree. I pressed my chakra through my arm and back to shield myself from the blow while I slashed out with my kunai, catching their clothing and a slight bit of skin. I heard a startled hiss but a hand smashed my wrist, forcing me to drop the blade. The smell of snake, tinged slightly with the scent of cooked flesh greeted my nostrils. It was hardly a relief as I finally met the eyes of my attacker.

A sickening yellow took the place where the whites of the eyes should have been, and the irises were the vertical slits of a snake, filled with an inky black so dark it seemed to suck the light away. Foreign chakra twisted its way into my skin and I screamed as the man stared at me, his eerie eyes unblinking.

“Interesting. I had believed the Yuki were all dead, yet here you are. An impressive display, overchanneling your chakra to the point where you could heat a blade. Especially because I sense you are not attuned to fire. How did you do it? If you answer me I will consider letting you live.”

I swallowed air as the grip on my throat became loose and I turned my eyes away from his, wanting to be anywhere else than under his cold stare.

“B-burning things already have fire ch-chakra. The fire starter technique isn’t actually a fire technique, it's just friction. The fire on the branch releases small amounts of fire chakra, I-I forced my chakra into the fire. I had n-noticed that all chakra a Shinobi releases contains small amounts of un-unaligned chakra which then in turn has a small chance of acquiring the chakra nature of whatever it is near. I wrapped the fire chakra in my own and f-forced it into the blade.”

The grip loosened and he clucked his tongue five times, making a strange sound. “Delightful, creative, incredibly wasteful though little Yuki. I assume you believed me to be a mere Chunin and hoped to end the fight quickly, or maybe merely drive me away with the pain of burning flesh?”

“Y-yes.”

The man separated from himself, dividing cleanly into two identical beings. One held me against the tree as the other stepped back and stared. A sealless technique. I had hardly felt his chakra move at all. His presence grew again and I closed my eyes for a moment, childishly trying to make the nightmare end.

“My name is Orochimaru, formerly of the Hidden Leaf. I have been searching for useful specimen and you intrigue me. It would be a waste to merely put a blade to you.”

The one holding me leaned in and sniffed.

“He has an irregularity in his chakra coils.”

The foolish part of me spoke first, “She.”

This seemed to amuse the man greatly, and he clucked his tongue, making the same strange sound as before. He moved his hand forming a half boar seal and leaned over me, fangs appearing in his mouth. I squirmed in fear as he breathed on my neck before his fangs sunk into me. I hissed in pain and tried to tear myself away from him when a vile dark chakra rushed into the bite. The unwelcome chakra gripped and pulled at my own chakra system, laying claim to it.

Then there was pain.

I cried and whimpered as my coils seem to try and twist away from the strange chakra surging through me. It felt like my very soul was trying to escape out of my skin. His presence lingered inside of me even as he drew his hand away, letting me slide down onto the branch.

I wanted to run and hide, to get as far away as possible. I couldn't though and instead I merely wrapped my arms around myself and fell to my knees closing my eyes hoping it would end. It moved around in me again, settling where the first chakra gate was located and pressed. I scrambled back physically against the branch trying to get away from the sensation.

“No, no no no no.”

The man clucked his tongue again, this time it sounded amused.

I shuddered in revulsion as the gate fell open before the chakra continued to slide further up my body, slowly climbing its way toward my head. Helplessness crept over me like a dirty blanket and I felt myself grow still and quiet as it continued to move.

“I will come for you again. Grow strong little Yuki.”

_ No. Please no _ . His presence vanished from my sense as the dark chakra finally reached the chakra gate located in my mind. I drew my arms tightly around myself again as I tried to keep it at bay but it pushed my efforts aside as if they were nothing and seemed to laugh at my struggle.  _ Please get it out, get it out _ . Blackness crowded the edges of my vision and the world seemed to slow down as my heartbeat pounded in my ears.

Little vile fingers of chakra grabbed at my thoughts as the last gate fell open, sliding their way in against my will.  _ Please make it stop. _ My heart beat grew so strong I could feel my body shake with it. Rage rose up and met the feeling of helplessness and I screamed in defeat as the chakra finally found the last corners of my mind. Color seemed to fade around me and I knew with perfect clarity that I once again had someone else I wanted to kill left in the world.

Chalky, filmy grey bled into the world around me and finally I lost consciousness. I seemed to fall forever, caught only by nightmares of yellow eyes and endless waves of dark ravenous chakra.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm rewriting chapter 1 of this piece.


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